- Geopolitics, Cultural History, History of Historiography, European intellectual history, Historiography, Biopolitics, and 19 moreFascism, Avant-Garde, Futurism, Europe, Weimar Republic, Eugenics, Political Religion, Mitteleuropa / Central European studies, Thomas Lemke, Colonialism, Imperialism, Empire, Hannah Arendt, Racism, Michel Foucault, Totality, History of International Relations, Hegemony, and Gramsciedit
- I am a historian of political thought, which means I have a variety of interests in politics and history and a great ... moreI am a historian of political thought, which means I have a variety of interests in politics and history and a great curiosity for all aspects of political and intellectual history.Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum putoedit
Civilizations, or rather narratives about civilizations, matter, not only as research subjects in textbooks, literary and scientific essays, but also in politics. This seems to be the case in "civilizational states" such as China, Russia,... more
Civilizations, or rather narratives about civilizations, matter, not only as research subjects in textbooks, literary and scientific essays, but also in politics. This seems to be the case in "civilizational states" such as China, Russia, Turkey and Syria. Also in Western countries, in recent decades, the notion of civilization has often been used in public discourse: political parties and leaders have referred in particular to the need to protect Western civilization, calling in this regard for policies to restrict immigration from Muslim countries. In 2022 the narrative on civilization was used to legitimize the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The studies in this collected volume reconstruct how civilizational paradigms and narratives have been used to explain political relations, to define the global order, to justify attempts to gain hegemony over particular geopolitical areas, and to make predictions on global developments in specific times of crisis. In particular, this book analyzes the concepts of civilization as they have been used in the intellectual and political discourse in periods particularly critical for global relations and for the consolidation or contestation of the West’s dominant role in international, national politics and academic discourse.
The correspondence (1935-66) between the well-known historians Delio Cantimori and Werner Kaegi is published in this book and introduced by an essay by Patricia Chiantera-Stutte, in which their academic milieus, their intellectual... more
The correspondence (1935-66) between the well-known historians Delio Cantimori and Werner Kaegi is published in this book and introduced by an essay by Patricia Chiantera-Stutte, in which their academic milieus, their intellectual development and their friendship is analysed and commented. Cantimori's and Kaegi's letters deal with a wide range of themes: Humanism, Renaissance, the historiographical debate in the first half of the century, and even politics, fascism, communism and liberalism.
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The book describes and analyses the life and work of Julius Evola. Based on archivial documents and on a wide survey of primary and secondary literature the book investigated the cultural and political activity of Julius Evola, in the... more
The book describes and analyses the life and work of Julius Evola. Based on archivial documents and on a wide survey of primary and secondary literature the book investigated the cultural and political activity of Julius Evola, in the esoteric milieus and in the conversative revolution, The relations to fascism and to intrasigenti are reported as well as Evola's idea of racism.
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Research Interests: Biopolitics and Eugenics
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The theories on Populism and psychology of the masses are usyually seen as different approaches that cannot be used in order to analyse the same political phenomena. In this paper I try to combine the models of the recent political theory... more
The theories on Populism and psychology of the masses are usyually seen as different approaches that cannot be used in order to analyse the same political phenomena. In this paper I try to combine the models of the recent political theory with the approaches of collective psychology in order to study contemporary populism
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in this article I examine two dystopian novels that share some common starting points: they both refer to afar-distant past, before civilization as such began; they attempt to describe the re-establishment of human moral behavior in the... more
in this article I examine two dystopian novels that share some common starting points: they both refer to afar-distant past, before civilization as such began; they attempt to describe the re-establishment of human moral behavior in the extremely hostile conditions such a pastentails; and their respective authors believe that the only possible basis for re-establishingmorality may be found in the relation of hospitality between the self and the other. The twonovels are
Blindness,
by José Saramago, and
The Road,
by Cormac McCarthy. In spite ofthe difference between the historical contexts in which these novels were written—
Blindness
was written in 1995 and
The Road
in 2006—and between the authors, they present strikingsimilarities, even though they ultimately seem to reach different conclusions. Indeed, the twonovels pose the same fundamental political and philosophical question: how is moralitypossible in a condition almost similar to the state of nature? Saramago’s answer issuggested in the behavior—not the language— of the doctor’s wife, the only character whokeeps her eyesight; McCarthy, on the other hand, chooses a child as the moral agent in aworld characterized by death and deprived of order.
Blindness,
by José Saramago, and
The Road,
by Cormac McCarthy. In spite ofthe difference between the historical contexts in which these novels were written—
Blindness
was written in 1995 and
The Road
in 2006—and between the authors, they present strikingsimilarities, even though they ultimately seem to reach different conclusions. Indeed, the twonovels pose the same fundamental political and philosophical question: how is moralitypossible in a condition almost similar to the state of nature? Saramago’s answer issuggested in the behavior—not the language— of the doctor’s wife, the only character whokeeps her eyesight; McCarthy, on the other hand, chooses a child as the moral agent in aworld characterized by death and deprived of order.
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This article analyses some examples of historical narratives that, long before the emergence of so-called postmodern history, had a specific narrative character: the reconstructions of 'missed revolutions' taking into account a possible... more
This article analyses some examples of historical narratives that, long before the emergence of so-called postmodern history, had a specific narrative character: the reconstructions of 'missed revolutions' taking into account a possible alternative history and tracing back the reasons for a social, political, and economic crisis to an interrupted process, one that, had it been completed, would have triggered some sort of progress. Even if this kind of historical representation cannot properly be classified as a form of alternate history, it can be placed between traditional historical accounts of the past and a more innovative pattern, which entails a more speculative argumentation, and therefore has been used to justify or suggest specific political claims. One of the most obvious examples of this literature are the narrations of the 'unaccomplished Risorgimento', which was a highly debated theme in the political, intellectual, and historical discussion from the period of the Italian unification until the economic and political reconstruction following the Second World War. This article will stress four possible functions of the 'missed revolution' narratives: first, as a way to discover some currents that have been underestimated by the official historiography or mainstream political discourse; second, to observe the role assigned to particular events in altering the destiny of a nation; third, to show how political and intellectual actors use history to justify political actions or events; and finally, to reveal how, conversely, by reconstructing 'missed revolutions' individual historians and, more generally, public intellectuals can take up a specific political stance while writing history.
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My contribution explores the meaning of war and the role of Germany, which was seen as representing a Mittellage, before the First and the Second World Wars, through the eyes of two main authors who radically reinterpreted and... more
My contribution explores the meaning of war and the role of Germany, which was seen as representing a Mittellage, before the First and the Second World Wars, through the eyes of two main authors who radically reinterpreted and appropriated geographical political thinking, particularly the work of Ratzel. I am referring to the Swedish political scholar Rudolf Kjellen and the "crown jurist" of the Third Reich, Carl Schmitt. The consideration of the triple relation between space, Ratzel and war casts light on Kjellen's and Schmitt's use of Ratzel as a lever in order to promote their idea of politics and political science. Ratzel's concepts offered Kjellen and, in a different way, Schmitt, a means of justifying their way of overcoming and stretching the "limits" of their disciplines and, at the same time, of introducing a new idea of political and geographical organization, which de facto legitimized German expansion, in two crucial periods of German political life-the First and the Second World Wars. As a consequence, their Ratzel was oriented toward militant aims. Moreover, their scientific and political ideas were clearly intertwined-they explicitly rejected the idea of separating their roles as political activists and as members of a scientific community.
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Not only different and opposite issues and demands build the complex ideological constellation of the first American Populism (People's Party) but also a plurality and variety of political and social forces represent the main agents of... more
Not only different and opposite issues and demands build the complex ideological constellation of the first American Populism (People's Party) but also a plurality and variety of political and social forces represent the main agents of the populist protest movements between the nineteenth and twentieth century in America. One of the main contradictions emerging from the political debate led by American populist leaders at the time is the one between the claim for a stronger role of the central government and the implementation of direct democracy. The essay deals with this contradiction, which is key to understand the vagueness of the populist ideology and of the "people's identity" in the populist movements. The article shows that the ambiguous nature of the idea of people, as Laclau argues, may explain the reason for the success of populist movements, namely for their ability to mobilise and bring together different classes and opposite interests.
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The Euroscepticism of contemporary populist parties is analysed starting from contemporary political literature (Mudde and Taggart). In this article the question about the creation of a new political cleavage between anti-Eu and pro-Eu... more
The Euroscepticism of contemporary populist parties is analysed starting from contemporary political literature (Mudde and Taggart). In this article the question about the creation of a new political cleavage between anti-Eu and pro-Eu parties is discussed, along with an articulation of the Eu scepticism into a right-winf and a left-wing criticism.
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eferring to a specific kind of intellectual, namely historians, Ian Ifversen has recently observed that these ‘are professional narrators of changing time. In this sense they imagine change’. Historians, and intellectuals generally,... more
eferring to a specific kind of intellectual, namely historians, Ian Ifversen has recently observed that these ‘are professional narrators of changing time. In this sense they imagine change’. Historians, and intellectuals generally, foresee crises, prepare public opinion for facing them, and even create new terms (Vorbegriffe) in order to define future events and scenarios, the perception of which is not clear in times of transition.This is what Arnold J. Toynbee (1889-1975) and later Samuel P. Huntington (1927-2008) did.
The following analysis aims to fill this gap by showing that the main difference between Arnold J. Toynbee's and Samuel P. Huntington?s models of civilisation and of social crisis is related not only to their political beliefs, but also to their position as critical intellectuals commenting on political and social crisis. The following analysis focuses on their main works, Toynbee’s Study of History (1934-61) and Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations? (as an article 1993 and as a book 1996), which were written during critical political periods and enjoyed huge public attention well after their publication. I will also partly consider their reception, which may reveal the legitimation they gave (consciously or unconsciously) to the specific geopolitical system of power in the Western world after the Second World War. This chapter aims at discussing the main scale theories of civilisation in the twentieth century as they tackle, but also as they respond intellectually to crisis. The models of interpretations were even then turned to direct uses in international politics by high level policy makers in order to offer a rationale for some steps taken in the management of relevant political crisis – whether or not such uses comply with the ideas and intentions of the author of the theory.
The following analysis aims to fill this gap by showing that the main difference between Arnold J. Toynbee's and Samuel P. Huntington?s models of civilisation and of social crisis is related not only to their political beliefs, but also to their position as critical intellectuals commenting on political and social crisis. The following analysis focuses on their main works, Toynbee’s Study of History (1934-61) and Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations? (as an article 1993 and as a book 1996), which were written during critical political periods and enjoyed huge public attention well after their publication. I will also partly consider their reception, which may reveal the legitimation they gave (consciously or unconsciously) to the specific geopolitical system of power in the Western world after the Second World War. This chapter aims at discussing the main scale theories of civilisation in the twentieth century as they tackle, but also as they respond intellectually to crisis. The models of interpretations were even then turned to direct uses in international politics by high level policy makers in order to offer a rationale for some steps taken in the management of relevant political crisis – whether or not such uses comply with the ideas and intentions of the author of the theory.
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The article analyses the contemporary populism and its relation to democracy, i.e. to the nature and to the crisis of democracy.The author considers the issue of representation in the contemporary forms of populism and compares populism... more
The article analyses the contemporary populism and its relation to democracy, i.e. to the nature and to the crisis of democracy.The author considers the issue of representation in the contemporary forms of populism and compares populism with some historical examples of institutional crisis of democracy: bonapartism and caesarism. Moreover this article observes the contradictions at the core of the the modern idea of political representation and the "use" of this contradiction by the populist parties.
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eferring to a specific kind of intellectual, namely historians, Ian Ifversen has recently observed that these ‘are professional narrators of changing time. In this sense they imagine change’. Historians, and intellectuals generally,... more
eferring to a specific kind of intellectual, namely historians, Ian Ifversen has recently observed that these ‘are professional narrators of changing time. In this sense they imagine change’. Historians, and intellectuals generally, foresee crises, prepare public opinion for facing them, and even create new terms (Vorbegriffe) in order to define future events and scenarios, the perception of which is not clear in times of transition.This is what Arnold J. Toynbee (1889-1975) and later Samuel P. Huntington (1927-2008) did. The following analysis aims to fill this gap by showing that the main difference between Arnold J. Toynbee's and Samuel P. Huntington?s models of civilisation and of social crisis is related not only to their political beliefs, but also to their position as critical intellectuals commenting on political and social crisis. The following analysis focuses on their main works, Toynbee’s Study of History (1934-61) and Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations? (as an article 1993 and as a book 1996), which were written during critical political periods and enjoyed huge public attention well after their publication. I will also partly consider their reception, which may reveal the legitimation they gave (consciously or unconsciously) to the specific geopolitical system of power in the Western world after the Second World War. This chapter aims at discussing the main scale theories of civilisation in the twentieth century as they tackle, but also as they respond intellectually to crisis. The models of interpretations were even then turned to direct uses in international politics by high level policy makers in order to offer a rationale for some steps taken in the management of relevant political crisis – whether or not such uses comply with the ideas and intentions of the author of the theory.
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The essay analyses the paradigm shift in the geopolitical and geographical imagination at the beginning of the 20th century. In particular, developing some suggestions from Focault, it reconstructs throught the main geopolitical workd ans... more
The essay analyses the paradigm shift in the geopolitical and geographical imagination at the beginning of the 20th century. In particular, developing some suggestions from Focault, it reconstructs throught the main geopolitical workd ans aricles the interactions between new concepts of State and territory and a original form of governmentality. The concept of totality is used here as a device that reveals the dramatical changes in the ideas of government and population.
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The essay analyses the cultural process, that leads to the justification of the colonisation of the Slaves and their territories from the Ninethies to the Twentieth Century. In particular it describes the conflict between the German and... more
The essay analyses the cultural process, that leads to the justification of the colonisation of the Slaves and their territories from the Ninethies to the Twentieth Century. In particular it describes the conflict between the German and the Slave civilisations in the German philosophical and historiographical literature from Herder to the Ostforschung and defines two streams of interpretation. The first one, taking place in the 19th century, is based on the cultural difference and the following one is based on economic and apparent "neutral" considerations. Following this last interpretation, the Slavs are seen as economically and politically unable to rule a nation. The essay suggest that this kind of hirarchisation of different populations does not disappear with the end of National Socialism.
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introduction to the special issue on "the constitutitution of politica spaces" of the international Review "storia del pensiero politico" (3/2015) with articles by John Agnew, Paul Blokker, Roberto Valle, Corrado Stefanachi
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This essay explores the works of some main German authors who stated the opposition between the sea- and landpowers: Alfred von Tirpitz, Friedrich Razel and Carl Schmitt. Their thought is investigated in relation to the context of the... more
This essay explores the works of some main German authors who stated the opposition between the sea- and landpowers: Alfred von Tirpitz, Friedrich Razel and Carl Schmitt. Their thought is investigated in relation to the context of the German foreign and domestic politics, and in relation to the opposition between the two main political currents of "Weltpolitik" and "Lebensraum" expansion. The main thesis of the article is that their formulation of the oppostion between land and sea and their difense of the position of Germany in the maritime international politics have to be studied in relation to the promotion of a Middleeuropean union of States lead by Germany. These authors only seemingly refer to the classical opposition between sea- and landpower. Their vision is actually based on the Monroe Doctrine, that divides the world into main continents, and therefore their true aim is to imagine a division of the world along different areas of power.
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In this essay I demonstrate that Friedrich Ratzel's Lebensraum essay can itself be read as a biopolitical text because it contains something more than a pure description of the Darwinian struggle for life, namely an imperative. I... more
In this essay I demonstrate that Friedrich Ratzel's Lebensraum essay can itself be read as a biopolitical text
because it contains something more than a pure description of the Darwinian struggle for life, namely an
imperative. I therefore interrogate Ratzel's ideas in the light of Michel Foucault's theory of biopower. In
order to unveil the deeply biopolitical character of Ratzel's Lebensraum idea, I point first to Ratzel's
specific notion of culture, which he shares with the cultural studies approach (Kulturwisenschaften)
developed by the Leipzig circle. Secondly, I detect the main ‘stone guest’ in this text e Ratzel's idea of
politics and the ‘art of state politics’ (Staatskunst), by folding ‘politics’ into German cultural imperialism.
Finally, by interrogating Ratzel's notion of science, I show his construction of geography as ‘powerknowledge’
in ways designed to reveal to politicians the keys for an understanding of human and political
life.
because it contains something more than a pure description of the Darwinian struggle for life, namely an
imperative. I therefore interrogate Ratzel's ideas in the light of Michel Foucault's theory of biopower. In
order to unveil the deeply biopolitical character of Ratzel's Lebensraum idea, I point first to Ratzel's
specific notion of culture, which he shares with the cultural studies approach (Kulturwisenschaften)
developed by the Leipzig circle. Secondly, I detect the main ‘stone guest’ in this text e Ratzel's idea of
politics and the ‘art of state politics’ (Staatskunst), by folding ‘politics’ into German cultural imperialism.
Finally, by interrogating Ratzel's notion of science, I show his construction of geography as ‘powerknowledge’
in ways designed to reveal to politicians the keys for an understanding of human and political
life.
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Da un'intervista del 1997 1 Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017), professore di sociologia presso diverse università in Israele, negli Stati Uniti, in Gran Bretagna e in Canada, è sta-to una delle figure più originali e influenti nel panorama... more
Da un'intervista del 1997 1 Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017), professore di sociologia presso diverse università in Israele, negli Stati Uniti, in Gran Bretagna e in Canada, è sta-to una delle figure più originali e influenti nel panorama intellettuale degli ultimi decenni. L'intervista che i «Quaderni di Sociologia» pubblicarono nel 1997-qui ripubblicata parzialmente-costituisce una testimonianza delle origini del suo pensiero e del suo impegno civile. Malgrado la distanza che ci separa dal tempo in cui Bauman conversò con noi su temi disparati, come la giustizia, la sociologia, l'etica e il ruolo degli intellettuali, riteniamo utile riprodurne una parte e rinviare al testo completo. Il pubblico contemporaneo conosce Zygmunt Bauman per le sue inter-pretazioni della modernità liquida, per i libri in cui, a partire da Liquid Love (2003) in poi, interpreta la postmodernità come il tempo in cui tutte le istituzioni, i valori e le credenze si frammentano, si liquefano, lasciando posto alla mode e alla società consumista. L'ultimo Bauman è sicuramente pessimista rispetto a quello che parla in questa intervista di venti anni fa, ma è altrettanto impegnato come in queste pagine a esporsi e a criticare la società, svolgendo quel ruolo prezioso di denunzia delle ingiustizie e di «avancer sans autorité», esprimendo e facendo conoscere le voci che altri-menti resterebbero in silenzio. Il richiamo a pungolare la politica, a svelare i luoghi comuni e a denunciare il logoramento delle basi sociali del mondo contemporaneo, assillato dalla corsa al consumismo, è stato per Bauman un dovere intellettuale ed etico costante. Questa è una delle cifre in cui va letta tutta la sua opera. Allo stesso modo, malgrado il pessimismo delle ultime opere come Consuming Life del 2007, Bauman resta un intellettuale atti-vista e socialista, pur rigettando gli sviluppi dei partiti socialisti contempo-ranei. È per questa ragione che tiene ferma la sua idea utopica e coraggiosa di Europa, come espresso in Europe: an Unfinished Adventure del 2004, e pochi anni dopo analizza e denuncia la percezione degli immigrati e la reto-rica che alimenta il panico contro le migrazioni in Strangers at Our Door del 2016. Con acume Bauman analizza la costruzione sociale e politica del 1 Intervista pubblicata in «Quaderni di Sociologia», XLI, 13, 1997, pp. 165-192. L'in-tervista fu raccolta da Patricia Chiantera, che qui firma le pagine introduttive.
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Nel saggio si va a ricostruire l'euroscetticismo dei movimenti populisti europei e si evidenzia la formazione a livello politico di un cleavage che corrisponde alla frattura fra euroscettici ed euro-ottimisti
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In November of 2003, I received an e-mail from Diana, a 26 year old Hungarian Ph.D.-student of archaeology and Egyptology. She is also interested in gender studies, she wrote me, especially in the cult of female goddesses. She also sent... more
In November of 2003, I received an e-mail from Diana, a 26 year old Hungarian Ph.D.-student of archaeology and Egyptology. She is also interested in gender studies, she wrote me, especially in the cult of female goddesses. She also sent me the article on this topic that she had recently published in the very mainstream Hungarian journal of religious studies, the Review of History of the Church. In this article, she refers to articles published in English, French, German and Italian, quoting sources in Latin and in Ancient Greek. In the e-mail, Diana asked for my help to give suggestions about literature on re-interpreting the role of women in religion because she was familiar with my work on populism, religion and gender. Before the reader starts believing that I am using this very precious occasion to celebrate the developing communication between two generations of female scholars in Hungary, I would like to continue the story with a police report issued on the 23 June in 2004. In...
Research Interests: Law and German Law
In November of 2003, I received an e-mail from Diana, a 26 year old Hungarian Ph.D.-student of archaeology and Egyptology. She is also interested in gender studies, she wrote me, especially in the cult of female goddesses. She also sent... more
In November of 2003, I received an e-mail from Diana, a 26 year old Hungarian Ph.D.-student of archaeology and Egyptology. She is also interested in gender studies, she wrote me, especially in the cult of female goddesses. She also sent me the article on this topic that she had recently published in the very mainstream Hungarian journal of religious studies, the Review of History of the Church. In this article, she refers to articles published in English, French, German and Italian, quoting sources in Latin and in Ancient Greek. In the e-mail, Diana asked for my help to give suggestions about literature on re-interpreting the role of women in religion because she was familiar with my work on populism, religion and gender. Before the reader starts believing that I am using this very precious occasion to celebrate the developing communication between two generations of female scholars in Hungary, I would like to continue the story with a police report issued on the 23 June in 2004. In...
Research Interests: Law and German Law
This paper considers the dangers of the acceleration of political processes in a situation of emergency, which is characterized by panic and emotions of fear. The pandemic is seen as a kind of laboratory, that shows that a situation of... more
This paper considers the dangers of the acceleration of political processes in a situation of emergency, which is characterized by panic and emotions of fear. The pandemic is seen as a kind of laboratory, that shows that a situation of fear and political acceleration leads to eventual stresses and crisis experienced by the political and juridical institutions. Political acceleration and fear are some of the preconditions of the exercise of an arbitrary power, unlimited and disruptive with regards to the rule of law. In this perspective both populism and the pandemic may potentially put democratic and liberal institutions under stress.
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The contribution will attempt to reflect on the interplay in recent theories of populism and crowd psychology between the ideas of mob and crowd on the one hand, and those of mass and people on the other. Using an approach deriving from... more
The contribution will attempt to reflect on the interplay in recent theories of populism and crowd psychology between the ideas of mob and crowd on the one hand, and those of mass and people on the other. Using an approach deriving from the history of ideas, it will outline two fundamental aspects of the complex and ambivalent interaction between the concepts of people, crowds, masses and mob: first, the transformation of the protesting crowd or mob into “the people,” the legitimate source of sovereignty; second, the distinction between regressive crowds and mobs and progressive masses and peoples, stated both explicitly and implicitly in crowd psychology and populist theory. This article will also aim to highlight an idea that has come to the fore in much of the recent literature on populism. It has long been observed that populism opposes “corrupted” elites and the “honest” people. But it has recently been observed that a major source of populist mobilization is a distinction, wit...
L'antica questione dei limiti del diritto nonché dei confini tra diritto, morale e politica acquista oggi nuovo rilievo grazie al dibattito su due questioni molto spinose: da una parte, la stigmatizzazione razziale e la ricerca... more
L'antica questione dei limiti del diritto nonché dei confini tra diritto, morale e politica acquista oggi nuovo rilievo grazie al dibattito su due questioni molto spinose: da una parte, la stigmatizzazione razziale e la ricerca di strumenti capaci di alleviare situazioni di discri-minazione (in ...
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... La Mitteleuropa condensa in sé riferimenti e significati politici e geografici: è un concetto che, secondo Le Rider, mantiene confini sfumati e variabili, in relazione alle circostanze6 e rappresenta insieme un'utopia politica e... more
... La Mitteleuropa condensa in sé riferimenti e significati politici e geografici: è un concetto che, secondo Le Rider, mantiene confini sfumati e variabili, in relazione alle circostanze6 e rappresenta insieme un'utopia politica e un pae-saggio geografico7. ...
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Populism is among the most controversial and debated contemporary political issues. The definition of populism itself is inherently problematic because of its indeterminacy. Populism seems to be a contemporary phenomena, being strongly... more
Populism is among the most controversial and debated contemporary political issues. The definition of populism itself is inherently problematic because of its indeterminacy. Populism seems to be a contemporary phenomena, being strongly dependent from political propaganda and mass communication media. The question concerning the regressive nature of populism can thus be stated within the broader issue of the relation between populism and democracy. In fact, when populism is investigated, it appears necessary to consider its relation with those political forces that place themselves within the political project of representative government, as well as in relation with the theme of democracy itself. In our perspective, in order to define populism it is not sufficient to question its relation with leftist or right wing political parties, or with progressive and reactionary political forces: instead, we deem necessary to trace its inner links with democracy itself, i.e. with that histori...
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This contribution aims at exploring one aspect of the “production” of fears in the 20 th century, analysing the period between the Two World Wars, namely a crucial turning point in the history of the geopolitical and political thought and... more
This contribution aims at exploring one aspect of the “production” of fears in the 20 th century, analysing the period between the Two World Wars, namely a crucial turning point in the history of the geopolitical and political thought and reconstructing the genesis of the fears concerning the Western civilisation and Europe, that have originated from the end of the Second WW till now. Amongst the academics who dealt with the crisis of the European political system were three main intellectuals, who belonged to different disciplinary fields and were members of key political organizations in their countries: Halford Mackinder, Isaiah Bowman and Arnold J. Toynbee. In this article their ideas will be investigated from the perspective of the history of political thought: they will be considered as “political thinkers”, whose comments on contingent political facts were supported by their academic and intellectual expertise and whose ideas, at their turn, had a certain impact on the politi...
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The 2005 referenda on the European constitution and the Irish vote in 2008 against the Lisbon Treaty represent a real trauma and danger for the possible evolution of the integration of the European Union (EU), according to numerous... more
The 2005 referenda on the European constitution and the Irish vote in 2008 against the Lisbon Treaty represent a real trauma and danger for the possible evolution of the integration of the European Union (EU), according to numerous sociologists, political scientists and lawyers. The first reaction of some scholars was that of a shock: how was it possible that France and the Netherlands - two of the "founders" of the European Community - could refuse a EU constitution that would have established a stronger collaboration between the nations and a deeper democratisation of the EU?
international conference held at City University and LSE London
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Trilaterale Forschungskonferen zen Ordnungen globaler Macht. Die geo-und biopolitische Rezeption der raum-theoretischen Arbeiten Friedrich Ratzels im Europa des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts Conferenze di ricerca trilaterali Ordini del potere... more
Trilaterale Forschungskonferen zen Ordnungen globaler Macht. Die geo-und biopolitische Rezeption der raum-theoretischen Arbeiten Friedrich Ratzels im Europa des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts Conferenze di ricerca trilaterali Ordini del potere globale: la ricezione politica e geopolitica della teoria spaziale dei lavori di Friedrich Ratzel nell'Europa del ventesimo e ventunesimo secolo Conférences de recherche trilatérales Régimes de pouvoir global. La réception géo-et biopolitique des travaux de Friedrich Ratzel à propos d'une théorie de l'espace, en Europe du 20ème et 21ème siècle Villa Vigoni
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L'antica questione dei limiti del diritto nonché dei confini tra diritto, morale e politica acquista oggi nuovo rilievo grazie al dibattito su due questioni molto spinose: da una parte, la stigmatizzazione razziale e la... more
L'antica questione dei limiti del diritto nonché dei confini tra diritto, morale e politica acquista oggi nuovo rilievo grazie al dibattito su due questioni molto spinose: da una parte, la stigmatizzazione razziale e la ricerca di strumenti capaci di alleviare situazioni di discri-minazione (in ...
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This article analyses some examples of historical narratives that, long before the emergence of so-called postmodern history, had a specific narrative character: the reconstructions of 'missed revolutions' taking into... more
This article analyses some examples of historical narratives that, long before the emergence of so-called postmodern history, had a specific narrative character: the reconstructions of 'missed revolutions' taking into account a possible alternative history and tracing back the reasons for a social, political, and economic crisis to an interrupted process, one that, had it been completed, would have triggered some sort of progress. Even if this kind of historical representation cannot properly be classified as a form of alternate history, it can be placed between traditional historical accounts of the past and a more innovative pattern, which entails a more speculative argumentation, and therefore has been used to justify or suggest specific political claims. One of the most obvious examples of this literature are the narrations of the 'unaccomplished Risorgimento', which was a highly debated theme in the political, intellectual, and historical discussion from the period of the Italian unification until the economic and political reconstruction following the Second World War. This article will stress four possible functions of the 'missed revolution' narratives: first, as a way to discover some currents that have been underestimated by the official historiography or mainstream political discourse; second, to observe the role assigned to particular events in altering the destiny of a nation; third, to show how political and intellectual actors use history to justify political actions or events; and finally, to reveal how, conversely, by reconstructing 'missed revolutions' individual historians and, more generally, public intellectuals can take up a specific political stance while writing history.
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... La Mitteleuropa condensa in sé riferimenti e significati politici e geografici: è un concetto che, secondo Le Rider, mantiene confini sfumati e variabili, in relazione alle circostanze6 e rappresenta insieme un'utopia politica e... more
... La Mitteleuropa condensa in sé riferimenti e significati politici e geografici: è un concetto che, secondo Le Rider, mantiene confini sfumati e variabili, in relazione alle circostanze6 e rappresenta insieme un'utopia politica e un pae-saggio geografico7. ...
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... Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Gründer des Futurismus, hätte nie an eine solch verblüffende Me-tamorphose seiner künstlerischen Revolte gedacht: Der Hypermodernismus und das revolutionäre Streben zur Zerstörung aller bürgerlichen... more
... Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Gründer des Futurismus, hätte nie an eine solch verblüffende Me-tamorphose seiner künstlerischen Revolte gedacht: Der Hypermodernismus und das revolutionäre Streben zur Zerstörung aller bürgerlichen Traditionen lassen sich schwer mit dem ...
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The idea of Mitteleuropa began to gain momentum in the German geopolitical science of the beginning of the twentieth century. German geopolitics, which became famous through the works of Karl Haushofer, had set out a geographical and... more
The idea of Mitteleuropa began to gain momentum in the German geopolitical science of the beginning of the twentieth century. German geopolitics, which became famous through the works of Karl Haushofer, had set out a geographical and political notion of Mitteleuropa that supported a political project based on German expansion. As such, Mitteleuropa developed as both a political and scientific concept, a project and a `reality'. With an analysis of the core elements defining the term Mitteleuropa one can begin to appreciate the characteristics that differentiate it from other geographical concepts, as well as the features which some conservative authors have promoted following the geopolitical scientists. As a `geopolitical idea', Mitteleuropa can be shown to designate a way of understanding politics, nature and culture, or more specifically, their relationship.
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The contribution will attempt to reflect on the interplay in recent theories of populism and crowd psychology between the ideas of mob and crowd on the one hand, and those of mass and people on the other. Using an approach deriving from... more
The contribution will attempt to reflect on the interplay in recent theories of populism and crowd psychology between the ideas of mob and crowd on the one hand, and those of mass and people on the other. Using an approach deriving from the history of ideas, it will outline two fundamental aspects of the complex and ambivalent interaction between the concepts of people, crowds, masses and mob: first, the transformation of the protesting crowd or mob into “the people,” the legitimate source of sovereignty; second, the distinction between regressive crowds and mobs and progressive masses and peoples, stated both explicitly and implicitly in crowd psychology and populist theory. This article will also aim to highlight an idea that has come to the fore in much of the recent literature on populism. It has long been observed that populism opposes “corrupted” elites and the “honest” people. But it has recently been observed that a major source of populist mobilization is a distinction, within “the people,” between a “positive” people and the “others,” the plebs who are left outside the dynamics of any kind of political representation. The article will show that this distinction is fundamental in order to understand not only the construction of populist political identity, but also the dynamics of the mobilization of new movements, which claim to take charge of the political processes and change the rules of the game.
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eferring to a specific kind of intellectual, namely historians, Ian Ifversen has recently observed that these ‘are professional narrators of changing time. In this sense they imagine change’. Historians, and intellectuals generally,... more
eferring to a specific kind of intellectual, namely historians, Ian Ifversen has recently observed that these ‘are professional narrators of changing time. In this sense they imagine change’. Historians, and intellectuals generally, foresee crises, prepare public opinion for facing them, and even create new terms (Vorbegriffe) in order to define future events and scenarios, the perception of which is not clear in times of transition.This is what Arnold J. Toynbee (1889-1975) and later Samuel P. Huntington (1927-2008) did. The following analysis aims to fill this gap by showing that the main difference between Arnold J. Toynbee's and Samuel P. Huntington?s models of civilisation and of social crisis is related not only to their political beliefs, but also to their position as critical intellectuals commenting on political and social crisis. The following analysis focuses on their main works, Toynbee’s Study of History (1934-61) and Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations? (as an article 1993 and as a book 1996), which were written during critical political periods and enjoyed huge public attention well after their publication. I will also partly consider their reception, which may reveal the legitimation they gave (consciously or unconsciously) to the specific geopolitical system of power in the Western world after the Second World War. This chapter aims at discussing the main scale theories of civilisation in the twentieth century as they tackle, but also as they respond intellectually to crisis. The models of interpretations were even then turned to direct uses in international politics by high level policy makers in order to offer a rationale for some steps taken in the management of relevant political crisis – whether or not such uses comply with the ideas and intentions of the author of the theory.
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Durante gli anni Novanta del secolo scorso si impone con forza al grande pubblico e, insieme, alla platea accademica, un paradigma interpretativo delle relazioni internazionali e dei rapporti politici ed economici globali, che continuerà... more
Durante gli anni Novanta del secolo scorso si impone con forza al grande pubblico e, insieme, alla platea accademica, un paradigma interpretativo delle relazioni internazionali e dei rapporti politici ed economici globali, che continuerà ad avere successo fino a oggi: quello dello scontro delle civiltà, avviato dal successo del libro di Samuel Huntington Clash of civilisations 1. Il conflitto in questa lettura è deter-minato non da calcoli egoistici, o dalla follia individuale o dalla realtà politica della situazione anarchica che regna in ambito internazionale. Il realismo politico o la condotta morale non determinano di per sé il disordine globale: sono piuttosto gravi fratture culturali scavate da centinaia, migliaia di anni di sviluppi storici diversi, a definire le faglie che provocheranno i temibili riassestamenti del mondo politico futuro. La mappa terrestre che disegna Huntington per spiegare gli attuali e i futuri conflitti politici ed economici è composta di nove civiltà contrapposte tra loro, in una tensione irresolubile. Fino alla pubblicazione del bestseller di Huntington, due correnti in ambito delle Relazioni internazionali si erano confrontate per rendere conto dei conflitti che definivano la scacchiera politica internazionale, riconducendo la pluralità delle tensioni e guerre alla contrapposi-zione fra Occidente e Asia, tra il mondo libero capitalista e il mondo comunista retto dal totalitarismo. Il realismo politico, rappresentato da Edward Carr e da Hans Morgenthau e l'idealismo, che prendeva avvio dal presidente Woodrow Wilson, praticavano ancora la tradi-zione politica occidentale, che definiva la politica come un "affare" degli stati, e cioè di attori politici amorali, che agivano perseguendo propri interessi economici, politici o strategici. La differenza fra realisti 1 S.P. Huntington, Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of the World Order, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1996; tr. it. Lo scontro delle civiltà e il nuovo ordine mondiale, Milano, Garzanti, 1997. ceri_nemico.indb 117
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The article investigates the relation between the crisis of the democratic institutions and Michel’s political thought. In particular it analyses the shortcomings of the priciple of representation, described in Michel’s book “La... more
The article investigates the relation between the crisis of the democratic institutions and Michel’s political thought. In particular it analyses the shortcomings of the priciple of representation, described in Michel’s book “La sociologia del partito politico”. Michel’s radical critique of the representative institutions is studied with regards to the authoritarian and populist attempts to overcome the representative democracy. The main aim of the article is to suggest the usefulness of Michel’s remarks on democracy in order to understand our present crisis of democracy in the European political institutions.
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This article analyses some examples of historical narratives that, long before the emergence of so-called postmodern history, had a specific narrative character: the reconstructions of 'missed revolutions' taking into... more
This article analyses some examples of historical narratives that, long before the emergence of so-called postmodern history, had a specific narrative character: the reconstructions of 'missed revolutions' taking into account a possible alternative history and tracing back the reasons for a social, political, and economic crisis to an interrupted process, one that, had it been completed, would have triggered some sort of progress. Even if this kind of historical representation cannot properly be classified as a form of alternate history, it can be placed between traditional historical accounts of the past and a more innovative pattern, which entails a more speculative argumentation, and therefore has been used to justify or suggest specific political claims. One of the most obvious examples of this literature are the narrations of the 'unaccomplished Risorgimento', which was a highly debated theme in the political, intellectual, and historical discussion from the period of the Italian unification until the economic and political reconstruction following the Second World War. This article will stress four possible functions of the 'missed revolution' narratives: first, as a way to discover some currents that have been underestimated by the official historiography or mainstream political discourse; second, to observe the role assigned to particular events in altering the destiny of a nation; third, to show how political and intellectual actors use history to justify political actions or events; and finally, to reveal how, conversely, by reconstructing 'missed revolutions' individual historians and, more generally, public intellectuals can take up a specific political stance while writing history.
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Not only different and opposite issues and demands build the complex ideological constellation of the first American Populism (People's Party) but also a plurality and variety of political and social forces represent the main... more
Not only different and opposite issues and demands build the complex ideological constellation of the first American Populism (People's Party) but also a plurality and variety of political and social forces represent the main agents of the populist protest movements between the nineteenth and twentieth century in America. One of the main contradictions emerging from the political debate led by American populist leaders at the time is the one between the claim for a stronger role of the central government and the implementation of direct democracy. The essay deals with this contradiction, which is key to understand the vagueness of the populist ideology and of the "people's identity" in the populist movements. The article shows that the ambiguous nature of the idea of people, as Laclau argues, may explain the reason for the success of populist movements, namely for their ability to mobilise and bring together different classes and opposite interests.